Five choices for rigging swimbaits

Bass pro Dylan Fulk said swimbaits are fairly simple baits to fish, but there are a number of options for rigging them. He has rigged them five different ways.

• Threaded on a regular, 3/4-ounce jighead;

• Threaded on a 1-ounce bladed jighead without a skirt;

• Threaded on a Scounger head;

• Threaded on a spinhead or underspin jig;

• Rigged with the line through the bait.

Fulk likes to the through-bait rigging when fishing get particularly tough during the summer, especially when he winds up fishing for suspended bass.

“A lot of times during the summer, when fish are under a lot of pressure, they’ll pull off the bottom, and it’s hard to get ‘em to bite. I catch them a lot 10 feet off the bottom in, say, 30 feet of water,” he said. “It’s hard to get ‘em to bite, and it’s hard to get ‘em to commit enough to get that big bait bait in their mouth to get a hook on a regular jig.”

Fulk takes a hollow, plastic coffee stirrer and pushes it up through the bait’s belly and out its nose, then clips off the exposed ends. Next, he runs the line through the straw from nose to belly and threads a standard bullet-shaped worm weight on — backwards.

“If you slide the weight on the normal way, the tip of the weight will dig into the plastic coffee stirrer and crack it,” he said, explaining that the weight will fit nicely into the belly hole. A 5/0 treble hook is tied on so it slides up against the tip of the weight when retrieved. That way, all they’ve got to do is hit at it and they’ll get hooked.”